She finally sobered, too. “Nothing, I guess. It’s just… I don’t want to openly date anyone right now, what with my kids and—”

“Why not?” he broke in. “Dating is just dating. It’s letting me buy you a meal here and there. It’s going out and having a good time. It’s not a commitment, nothing that will hurt your girls. As you keep reminding me, you won’t be here very long, so it’s not as though things could ever get serious.”

She studied him in the moonlight slipping through the blinds while sliding her hands up and down his back.

He touched the tip of her nose with one finger. “Well?”

“Okay,” she relented. “Where do you want to go? And when?”

“I’ll take you to dinner in Santa Barbara tonight.”

“Tonight?” she said with a laugh.

“There’s no reason to wait. Christmas will be here in a week. You’ll have to spend the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth with your family. And you’ll be leaving shortly after that. Why waste any time?”

“Now I’m really starting to get worried,” she said.

“Because…”

“Because I feel like I should say no, but I don’t want to.”

“Then don’t.” He held his breath while awaiting her final answer.

She pulled him in for another kiss. “Fine. Dinner tonight.”

He rolled off, back onto his own side of the bed. “I’ll pick you up at six. The drive will take almost an hour.”

“I’ll be ready.”

He watched as she got up and started to dress. “Would you like to bring the girls? I could find a place they’d enjoy.”

She glanced over her shoulder at him. “No. Not this time.”

He backed off. There was no need to press for more than she felt comfortable with. “Okay,” he said and got up to dress, too.

This time when he dropped Harper off, Tobias drove away feeling excited, hopeful. He kept telling himself not to fully embrace those emotions. He’d be stupid to assume this was going to end well, but he was also determined not to ruin now with what might happen later. If he could’ve stopped seeing her, he would have. He’d tried not to answer his phone tonight. He just hadn’t been able to resist.

At this point, he was along for the ride.